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5G Opens up New IoT Possibilities

With the New Year comes many new challenges and many opportunities for the IoT (Internet of Things). There is no question that 2019 can be seen as the year of innovation, led by a world of 5G.

If 5G fulfills its promise and even potential, the world will be able to interact (i.e. communicate), exchange, (i.e. conduct business), and learn faster than ever before. 5G will be able to connect more IoT devices wirelessly bringing with it the ability to move more data, thereby being more responsive as a result of connecting more smart devices.

Simply, 5G expands on its earlier Fourth Generation connections, allowing for more sustainable and precise functions. Currently, 4G modules have proven to be expensive, consume a lot of power, and require complicated internet service plans, which is why most businesses have been comfortable working within 2G.

Moving forward with 5G, the goal will be that the wireless world will expedite consumer demand for autonomous, create improvements in healthcare and manufacturing processes, and will push for a drive in efficiencies in agriculture and smart cities like we’ve never imagined, not to mention a host of other industries.

Already, 5G’s lower latency, higher data rates, and higher bandwidth, for instance, are capable of transmitting packets of data directly between one car to another to a streetlight and then bouncing more data from a streetlight to another vehicle.

The real benefit of 5G is that it will connect many more small devices and, as such, Gartner is predicting more than 20 billion connected things by 2020. Interestingly, those things will most likely be 5G. 5G will accept small, inexpensive, low-power devices. Ultimately, it will connect a lot of smaller sensors, objects, and things to the internet and everything will be much more responsive at the edge.

In addition, 5G opens up the door for AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality), and the digital twin by creating an augmenting world for repairs and more. The small cell aspects of 5G will enable even more in-building coverage and the sky’s the limit for what’s next when each home router has its own cell site and more.The New Year holds many opportunities for creativity for emerging tech taking 5G beyond our wildest imaginations. With all the boasting going on, 2019 will undoubtedly be a year of promise for 5G.